Eating Disorders Reduce Fertility in Women

A new study from Finland has found that Eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder significantly reduce the chances of women having children.

The study, which was conducted by the University of Helsinki and the National Institute for Health and Welfare, found that people with anorexia were less than half as likely to become pregnant. This may be due to biological factors like a lack of ovulation because of the eating disorder or it could have another unknown cause.

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Facebook: A new tool in eating disorder analysis?

New research is showing the potential of social media websites like Facebook in regards to the prediction of health issues.

A recent study led by scientists from the Boston Children’s Hospital has given new attention to the possibility of using such a widespread social media platform in a medical and scientific sense.

The use of geo-tagged user data from Facebook seems to show that knowledge of a person’s online activity on a regional basis can help experts predict obesity, eating disorders and other health related issues on increasingly small scales. The possibilities of mapping the potential and current levels of obesity on a neighbourhood scale, for instance, is a very exciting prospect for professionals tasked with lowering such rates.

Traditionally, achieving such results has been difficult in several ways. Cost is, as we all know, a primary concern when planning and undertaking any medical research or study. The fact that Facebook is such a widespread and open platform gives researchers a unique opportunity to analyse this data for the betterment of communities and individuals. The problem of sample size is also lesser, with untold millions using Facebook in current days, often to the point where it is feasible to except an entire community to be representable through the social media platform.

The researchers involved in this study are well aware of these benefits; Brownstein, involved in running the computational epidemiology section within CHIP (the runners of this study) clearly understands these possibilities, saying that “Online social networks like Facebook represent a new high-value, low-cost data stream for looking at health at a population level. The tight correlation between Facebook users' interests and obesity data suggest that this kind of social network analysis could help generate real-time estimates of obesity levels in an area, help target public health campaigns that would promote healthy behaviour change, and assess the success of those campaigns."

With Facebook users that ‘like’ sports or activity related pages shown to be up to 12% lower in terms of obesity rates, there is the great possibility of low cost data being available for researchers in a truly large scale.

This said, the issue of privacy and attainment of this data may prove an issue, with Internet privacy an incredibly hot topic amongst net users at present. It remains to be seen how this gold mine of data can be used fairly and openly amongst researchers to improve the quality of life of those they aim to understand better.  Brownstein concludes that this study “reveal(s) how social media data can augment public health surveillance by giving public health researchers access to population-level information that they can't otherwise get."

For more information about Eating Disorder Treatment visit The Life Works Website. 

Virtual reality could be used to treat eating disorders

Research conducted in Spain has highlighted the possibility of virtual reality computer programs as a means to help educate individuals suffering from eating disorders.

The study was based around several different scenarios created electronically. The subject of body image disturbance is a significant indicator of possible eating disorders, with individuals suffering from, for instance, bulimia or binge eating viewing their bodies as smaller or larger than reality, respectively. The idea of employing technology in the form of computer programs was first analyzed in 2003, with the recent Canada based follow-up shedding new light on the possibilities of this type of support.

In one of the scenarios created for the purpose of the study, participants were tasked with adjusting the proportions of a computerized body until they felt it matched their own physical bodies. This allowed for clear and immediate indication of an individual being out of touch with their true physical size.

 Another scenario portrayed a door, with a body shown as prepared to enter sideways. In this computerized scenario, the participant was asked to remove strips within the doorway until they felt their body could fit through the door sideways.

 The results of the study have been both interesting and promising. It was found that the addition of these virtual reality scenarios indeed aided in reduction of eating disorder symptoms. This was compared to just cognitive therapy and was found to be more effective.

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Springwatch presenter opens up about Anorexia past

A television presenter has opened up about the eating disorder she suffered with for several years while attempting to maintain some control in her life.

Michaela Strachan said the anorexia that saw her weight plummet to dangerous lows came about as a result of her "sheltered middle-class world" falling apart.

During an interview with the Daily Mail, the Springwatch and Autumnwatch presenter admitted she would fast and survive on as little food as possible in a bid to keep the excess pounds off.

The 46-year-old also revealed that she became obsessed with monitoring her weight on the scales and would make herself vomit if the needle edged even slightly above her ideal weight.

"I ate virtually nothing all day. You’d think I would have collapsed with exhaustion, but the feeling of light-headedness was addictive," Strachan explained.

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